Sinn Fein's Northern Ireland headquarters are used by the IRA to hold meetings and to plan terrorist operations and financing, security sources have said.

One senior source tells today's Times: "Connolly House was always the focus point of both IRA and Sinn Fein meetings, though they were cute enough to have other meetings at different places that we weren't aware of."

He said that at the meetings, IRA figures would discuss "everything from forthcoming operations to who was moving to what position".

Meanwhile, Paul Murphy, the Northern Ireland secretary, has announced proposals to strip Sinn Fein of the £500,000 Commons expenses paid to the party's four Westminster MPs.

Murphy told the Commons that the penalty was intended to convey the government's "strong disapproval" after the IRA's alleged involvement in a £26.5 million bank raid.